State Minister for Youth and Children Affairs, Hon. Balaam Barugahare Attenyi says the arts sector was not thought about during the 2024/2025 national budget reading since it was only considered under the Ministry of Culture.
In so doing, no artistic group managed to get money that would aid it in the running of their projects and other businesses yet the sports sector in particular Football under Federation of Uganda Football Association (FUFA) managed to land billions of shillings.
Hon. Balaam Barugahara blamed the fact that there was no one to advocate money for the arts sector since he was appointed into office late when everything was almost done, however this isn’t a fact bodies like the National Culture Forum (NCF) have for the last four years or so been advocating for the arts, as a matter of fact the arts issues were captured in National Development Program IV (NDP IV) which is going make it mandatory for government to plan and fund arts.
He adds that he wanted at least the Bakayimbira Drama actors to be accorded some money to help them clear Shs800m at Bat Valley theatre so that they could set up their theatre to extend their arts and drama production without any disturbances.
He further added that he was expectant that at least Shs20B would be allocated to the National Theatre so the people in charge of it would spearhead to construction of a modern state-of-the-art theatre.
I was expectant that the budget could at least allocate Shs20B for the construction of a modern National Theatre that all that is not possible now because I came too late. But in the next financial year, I will do everything possible to see that the arts sector is included in the budget.
He is optimistic that the President will be at the forefront of advocating for the arts sector and he believes he could allocate Shs1Trillion to skilled youths for start-ups with different business ideas.
The key demands that different arts association and federation under the National Culture Forum (NCF) that have been advocating for include, access to capital, skilling and training, access to markets and trade opportunities, legal reforms, governance and regulation of sector, finally infrastructure development.
